Fuel cells: promising devices for distributed generation

Due to the growing awareness for environmental protection and the increase in energy consumption, more interest has been given to green (renewable and fuel-cell-based) power generation systems. This paper shows how effectively this type of distributed generation (DG) produces quality energy compared to other DG technologies. One advantage is that these systems can be placed at any site in a distribution system, without geographic limitations, to provide optimal benefit. It is observed that modeling of FCs (fuel cell) is helpful in evaluating its performance and for designing controllers. Overall, fuel cells are good energy sources that provides reliable power at steady state.